Comments By LDRSHIP

As a suggestion you could give H. O. Wolding a try. You are technically outside of the hiring area, but there is plenty of freight going to Tampa and Sarasota areas. You just may need to do OTR instead of Regional.

H. O. Wolding does allows dogs after training is complete and you upgrade to solo. You just have to pay a pet fee. So boarding your pet for 4-6 weeks will be a necessity.

Wolding is a great company. The family atmosphere there is second to none.

To give you a little hope, I have hearing aids for both ears. Although I can get along without them and rarely wear them. Just don’t ask me to find an air leak or any other high pitched noise. As a bonus, the sounds of trucks and reefers running is not so loud as some people claim, lol. More of a gentle vibration.

Personally you wouldn’t catch me dead in an AMT. But, I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess, lol.

Coleman’s tend to last me about a year. Big T is right about the fuse. Step one is always swap that fuse out. The 2 amp one pops fairly easy. I bought an igloo the last time and it died after 2 months. Unless you plan on getting a dometic your best bet is the Coleman.

The simple answer is what are you willing to sleep with. You will need to bring or buy bedding. That can take up a lot of space. At least a sheet, sleeping bag and pillow. Don’t forget personal hygiene items. I took a military duffle, a large and a small backpack. The large backpack was filled mostly with bedding.

No matter what your experience level is; you WILL have days backing were the rookie with ink that has dried all of 5 mins will put it in the dock in one try while you sit there for 30 mins doing more pull-ups and GOALs then you can count only to give up and have the yard dog put the trailer in the dock for you.

A recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board not only kicks the teeth out of the independent contractor/employee controversy, but sets the stage for some major head-butting with California authorities if that state's latest attempt to force employee status on independent truck drivers is successful.

Berkeley study says reducing independent truckers can alleviate climate change

ROFLMAO

Come on Brett, I have NEVER had anybody take what I have said and try to skew so far in left field!

Ok here goes, I guess I have to add context.

Un American comment:. Of course the big association is NOT going to go and say: “We want more regulation so we can choke out the small American dream companies.” Of course they are going to use the guise of safety. It is politics. Whenever has anything with politics ever been honest about what the true intentions are. Big corporations don’t give 2 hoots what the public thinks for the most part, but there are NOT gonna deliberately shoot themselves in the foot. Then again who knows, with the collapse of small family owned business in most sectors of life today. Perhaps the public wouldn’t care if they are trying to do what Walmart did to small retail and grocery stores.

Collision avoidance systems. Insurance companies give discounts because they bought into the material that a PAID 3rd party tester wrote about on the product they were PAID to evaluate. DUH. Has a single insurance company executive ever driven a truck with one of these crappy, lousy systems. NO!!!!! That is why believe the BS they have been fed. If they actually had to live with them on a daily basis. They would charge a PENALTY for having them installed!!

Speed Limiting. 85???? Really? You have spent way too much time with the Bull Haulers of west Texas!!! I was talking 70 MPH. 65 vs 70!!!!! Wow, where do you get 85 from? No 85 is not safer than 65!! But 70!!! Would be. Trucking companies govern at 65, 63, 58, etc.... for FUEL ECONOMY. This one blows my mind you went there. What kinda trucks has you been driving???

ELD. They are more efficient; because, of all the telemetry data. They know where drivers are, how many hours they have left, what issues are going on with the trucks. Because of their large size, imagine the nightmare if it was all a paper system for them. It is more efficient to have real time data!!!

Economy of Scale. Why don’t small business do it. If they want to ultimately survive they DO have to keep growing. In business you are either growing or dying. Purely simple. That one was fairly self explanatory.

Public opinion. Really??? Name one share holder or High powered corporate executive actually cares about public opinion? The bottom line is ALL that matters. I give you Donald Trump. ‘Nuff said!!

I have NEVER said large carriers are the scum of the earth. I said: “They are trying to eliminate the small company competition.” It is BUSINESS!!! I mean, come on. I have already stated I give two shakes whether they accomplish it or not. I WILL have a J O B!!! I don’t know where your stream of rhetoric is coming from. My ENTIRE point was SIMPLE. Safety is NOT their primary concern for what they are trying to get accomplished with regulation. Getting rid of the small town competition IS!!! I’m just calling it like it is. I don’t care if they pull it off!! I really don’t. Claiming safety is nothing more than a ruse..

I don’t think deregulation was bad!!! I was saying the companies fighting for it wasn’t thinking about the big picture and what it would cause. It was THEIR mistake, NOT an economic one!!!!! They were only thinking about what they wanted to do. Wanted to set prices on transportation fees, set up lanes where they want, etc... do you think they would of pulled for as much deregulation. as they did, if they knew what was going to happen? They ALREADY had their authority to transport goods from Uncle Sam!!! I really do NOT understand how everyone keeps wanting to think I am trying to bring up whether those changes were good for the U.S. economy as a whole or not!!! They were. That simple. What it was NOT good for was: allowing over competition driving down profit margins and forcing severe stagnation in driver pay. Being a truck driver used to be REALLY GOOD money. Now it is just decent!! Hell, soldiers make as much truck drivers. Being a soldier has NEVER been looked at a great way to make money!!

I am NOT saying the government or big corporations are evil. Again, I am saying using the guise of safety is BS!!! NOTHING MORE, PERIOD!!!!! That was ALL, I said, EVERYBODY ELSE IS TWISTING IT INTO SOMETHING IT IS NOT!!! INCLUDING YOU, BRETT.

Deregulation is what it is. I did NOT say it was bad for the economy. I’m saying it opened the door for extra competition . The big companies want that competition gone. It is purely that simple. I am not trying to get into an economics debate or even type of government we live in. Yes, I am making it simple. Yes, I am pointing to only one particular aspect of what all deregulation did.

I’m not saying safety is bad, but I firmly believe that isn’t the underlying goal of proposed changes. It is to stifle the small company. There will never be a “level playing field”. The large companies already hold the advantage with the economy of scale. Being able to leverage fuel, maintenance and purchase discounts. Having a larger pool of drivers to make up for harder enforcement of regulations. This just the latest attempt to drive smaller companies out. In today’s day and age there are even big companies that can’t keep up. NEMF and Falcon to name 2 this year that closed up shop.

I guess in the end it will be an agree to disagree. I don’t think big companies care what the public’s perceived image of the industry is. People keep buying stuff, so....

The big companies are fighting for regulations that don’t even effect them. They already use ELDs. The already have Collision Avoidance Systems installed, they already govern their trucks to under interstate speeds, etc... nothing they are fighting for will effect them. It is all aimed at eliminating the smaller competition. It really is that simple. Of course the big companies don’t want the small companies to be able to cheat their logs. That is how the small guys are staying in business.

If you want to keep the American way of business with lots of competition then these regulations are bad. If you want trucking to go back to a time with loads of regulations and fixed prices, that is exactly what will happen if the big companies get what they want.

Of course the big companies aren’t going to get regulations passed by saying they just want to squeeze out the competition. That would be un-American. So they say it has to do with safety. Then the moron public at large shakes their heads north and south and say what a great idea it is.

Big companies don’t have collision avoidance systems on their truck just for safety. No, they have them on their trucks for an insurance discount. Big companies don’t regulate their trucks to 65 mph for safety. They do it for the fuel savings. Big companies didn’t start using ELDs long before it became mandatory for safety. They did it because it increased efficiency. This industry survives on pennies. You have to rub those pennies until they shine. Big companies don’t join whatever “green” project with trucking because it is environmentally friendly. They do it for the tax breaks and the additional fuel savings.

If the shipper has a scale on site, you WILL scale in. That is determine how much they can put on. They will put as much as they can on. I’ve done Budweiser loads out of Colonial Heights, VA. Very heavy. You scale in so they can determine how much product they can ship